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7/14/2008

On the job!

There are two types of software engineers in Indian IT Services industry.:Ones who are treat their jobs as paid holidays, and the ones who take this rat race rather seriously.

(You might have made your mind up about the category I belong to. Please refrain from doing so until the end of this article.)

People in the first category are in this industry because of some past mistakes, and they know it. Mistakes like picking up fights with (almighty) placement/ department staff, directing energies towards wooing the members of opposite sex, gaining experiences that might take them to another level, and in many cases, not trusting their abilities and grabbing the first opportunity that comes in the way. The list goes on.

There are some sub-categories too, like the ones who want to pursue a management course, and the technically inclined. Management guys are mostly here for the mandatory work-Ex that their dream B-school asks for- or earning some bucks during the wait for their call-up, and the techies because their aggregate marks weren’t enough to impress their dream companies (read development firms). Marks take a backseat when someone has experience AND inclination for development. Back benchers, in other words.

Now the serious people. This bunch consists mostly of high-scoring individuals; ones usually found in the first benches of engineering colleges, ones who mug hundreds of pages and get bucketsful of marks, ones who can hardly write a line of code on their own. Ones who impress the interviewers by the weight of their marks, and word-perfect answers to the textbook questions posed to them. These guys know what are they capable of, and they live every moment of their ‘software-engineer’ life in fear. They generally depend upon the category 1 people to finish off the project (which they usually do), and take credit for whatever that is possible. Back benchers don’t mind, as they aren’t going to be in that company for long anyway.
Then these guys become Project managers; now they can get work from the newly-recruited back benchers in a legal way, by ‘motivating’ them.

Amazing how a US$ 50 Billion industry works on the 80/20 rule.

When I think of it, there can be a third group; the journeymen. One who are technically AND managerially inept. They’re here for money (or because they were forced into engg by over-eager parents), and use their time in IT Services Company to identify what they really want from their lives. Here one day, finish whatever they’re obliged to, and then move away. One can say this group was created because I didn’t fit into the first two.

P.S: this classification is only for engineers of IT branches; non- IT guys, well,I don't have much knowledge about the avenues to move ahead in the career they’ve chosen; unless of course they blundered during their +2 stage.